MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In early August, US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) approved the production-engineering phase for the B61-12 bomb, a B61 modification, with full-scale production scheduled to start after 2020.
The refurbished bombs will be sent to the Buechel air base in western Germany, according to top-secret data obtained by the Spiegel magazine.
The German Defense Ministry already has a plan to begin refitting its Tornado jets so that they can carry the new bombs, the outlet said.
The Buechel air base is run jointly by US and German forces. According to Spiegel, the United States keeps a guarded area inside the facility where it has been storing atomic bombs since the Cold War.
There has been a long-running debate in Germany about whether it should get rid of the US nuclear stockpile, but the German government found it hard to get the entire NATO bloc to consent.
